US Urged to Raise Teachers' Status

The New York Times (3/16, Dillon) reports, "To improve its public schools, the United States should raise the status of the teaching profession by recruiting more qualified candidates, training them better and paying them more, according to a new report on comparative educational systems. Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the international achievement test known by its acronym Pisa, says in his report that top-scoring countries like Korea, Singapore and Finland recruit only high-performing college graduates for teaching positions, support them with mentoring and other help in the classroom, and take steps to raise respect for the profession." The Times adds that the Pisa report was prepared in advance of an Education Department conference, and "Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that he hoped educational leaders would use the conference to share strategies for raising student achievement."